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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Happy Chinese New Year

Yay! Today is Chinese/Vietnamese New Year day ^-^ To me this celebration is even bigger than Christmas as we have a family gathering feast and red pockets aka lucky money (li xi) are distributed by older relatives like aunties/uncles to younger relatives (which includes me hehe). It's really exciting and of course, I always look forward to new year because it gives me an excuse to go out and buy new clothes etc. (it's traditional to wear new clothes on new years day!)

It's highly appropriate to flash some money on a day like this. Jokes, just the red pockets:

I'm joking again haha, I haven't gotten any red pockets this year yet!

But these are the cutest ones that I've had in past years

I rarely get really cute ones like above, so I like to keep them because they're pretty to look at ^^ I wore a red top because red is the lucky colour for Chinese New Year, but when I actually do go to my family gathering, I will where a different shirt (since this one is now 'old', from last month and worn before).

So since I haven't actually 'celebrated' CNY yet, I can't really say much about it :/ Not that I was intending to make a post on it anyway, but yeah... I'll now swiftly turn this into a beauty post on the count of 3. 1..... 2...... 3..........

Woooooooshhhh

I have a new dual eyeliner to share with you girls, it's so kawaii and I received it from KKCenterHK earlier this month. It's from a brand called 'Ling Mei' which I haven't heard of before but I can tell that it is a Chinese brand:

There isn't much information on the web page about it, just that it has two ends and there are different packaging colours and designs to choose from (yellow, pink, brown, green, purple, black) and I chose 'brown' which is actually more like gold.

Left is the pencil liner, right is the liquid liner

Both have the same thickness, though the liquid liner's black is darker

Pencil eyeliner is not smudge-proof, liquid eyeliner is

Both are not waterproof

I can't say that I'm impressed nor unimpressed with anything about this eyeliner because I really had zero expectations and this product has no claims of what it does, haha. So all I can comment on is how well it 'performed' as an eyeliner and my thoughts on this product.

My naked eye :O I hardly show myself without makeup on

I didn't attempt to be all creative with my eyeliner because I didn't want to stuff it up or anything. Instead I decided to be safe and stick to a design that I've done before (as seen in my tutorial in this post)

Liquid Eyeliner

It glided on really well and was really pigmented

The tip/brush wasn't too stiff or flexible, in fact it was perfect for me to precisely draw a line

It dried within 10~15 seconds

After it dried, I noticed that the formula felt a tiny bit sticky because each time I blinked I could feel my eyelid crease slightly sticking to the eyeliner

After a while the eyeliner lightly transferred onto the top of my eyelid (as seen in the picture above)

It lasted all day without fading or flaking

Pencil eyeliner

It glided well onto my waterline but required some extra strokes to make it more pigmented

Works extremely well on skin, smoothes on effortlessly

Can be used for top lash line and bottom lash line

However it smudges and rubs off, hardly leaving any residue

Eventually the eyeliner fades from the waterline

Overall Pros (+) and cons (-):

+ Cute product design and packaging
+ Plenty of designs colours to choose from
+ The plastic packaging is not tacky or easy to break
+ Really cheap and affordable, US $6.00
+ Dual eyeliner, perfect for on-the-go/travel
+ Pencil and liquid eyeliners glide on very well
+ Liquid eyeliner dries within 10-15 seconds
+ Liquid eyeliner is long-lasting (whole day)
+ Liquid eyeliner is smudge-proof
+ Pencil eyeliner can be easily removed in case of any mistakes while use
- Liquid eyeliner's formula is slightly sticky after drying
- Liquid eyeliner transfers onto top eyelid, even after it is dry
- Both are not waterproof
- Pencil eyeliner requires more strokes for better pigmentation
- Pencil eyeliner fades when used on the waterline

Overall thoughts:

In Australia, there are hardly any eyeliners that retail for around $6, let alone a dual eyeliner. Even some pencil eyeliners are close to $5 each or even more. Therefore to me this is such a bargain! The packaging is just adorable and if you didn't know the brand/where it came from, you'd probably think that this product is not a cheap one! If I saw someone using it in public, I would draw my eyes to it immediately and be like, 'wow it's so cute! Where did you get it from?' because I am a sucker for cute packaging. Anyway, for the price it is pretty decent. I mean, you can't expect it to be amazing but I think it's worth $6. The liquid liner was more impressive to me than the pencil and I'd still think highly of this product it if it just had the liquid eyeliner and wasn't a dual one. It only had a few cons however a 2-in-1 like this makes the cons forgivable... they equate to $3 each!

I would recommend this eyeliner to people who may be experimenting with eyeliner for the first time and/or are interested in purchasing a really inexpensive one. Eyeliner is my favourite makeup product and I have plenty of black eyeliners, but I can never have too many :P Having this one in my collection is nice because it stands out from the rest due to its design and this my only dual eyeliner which makes it super unique! I will definitely take this with me when I travel etc. where I'm not fussed whether it's smudge-proof/waterproof or not. Just because I may have some other eyeliners with better quality doesn't mean that I'll abandon this one, it will be used too!

Repurchase?

When it comes to purchasing eyeliner, it has to tick all the boxes (waterproof, sweat-proof, sweat-proof, long-lasting) and since this one doesn't, I wouldn't really consider adding it back to my collection once my current one runs out. I'll miss having a dual eyeliner but I can live without one x] The cute packaging and convenience doesn't tempt me too much ahaha.

If you're interested in purchasing this product, you can purchase it HERE for only $6!

Thanks for reading my review, here's my questjen of the week:

How important is eyeliner to you?

My answer: Important!

If you really want to transform your eyes, eyeliner is the way to go. It does more than eyeshadow and if it's worn correctly, it can make you look 'hot' lol. I also love guyliner, but only in small doses. I use eyeliner more than any other eye makeup product I own :)

14 comments:

Happy New Year! I got some really cute red packets last year, just some plain ones this year. To be honest it's the inside that counts LOLOLOL jk jk XD. I love Chinese New Year because it is a time that the whole family will get together. :) The Chinese community here isn't as big I wish I was in HK at this moment because the atmosphere would have been incredible~!

HAPPY NEW YEARS :D Wahahahaa. i love those hong bao's~~~ They so cute! i think i've only ever gotten ONE cute design... and i left that overseas T>T I havent got red pockets yet either!! btw, your hair looks lighter... is that the work of the dye that shall be blogged bout in the near future...? =P omg... DUAL EYELINER!! I saw those cute liquid liners on DX but i dont think they were double ended XD

Ooooh *__* Before looking at the text, I actually did think "Woah where did she get that from :O?!" but then you said KkCenterHK for $6 and I'm like *____* SAH CUTE AND CHEAP!

But yeah, I think eye liner is pretty important in terms of the type of make up I use because I feel like you don't even need anything else if you've got eye liner on! Well you probably do but it handles itself pretty well imo!